Transportation's Relationship with the Economy

There is an old U.S. Army Corps motto that says, "Nothing happens until something moves!" The principle behind this idea is that without transportation an army could not function to complete its missions. The same principle applies to the economy. Whether global, national, or local, the economy is heavily dependent upon transportation. There are very few businesses that do not require some form of transportation to effectively move their goods and services to their customers. This paper will examine the importance of transportation in the economy and demonstrate both its positive and negative impacts.

An analysis of transportation's impact on the economy must start with a definition of terms. Transportation can be defined as the movement of people and/or goods from one place to another, and the economy consists of "Activities related to the production and distribution of goods and services in a particular geographic region" ("Economy," n.d.). Thus, the transporting of people to and from their jobs and the transporting of raw materials to manufacturers and finished goods to stores and customers is a vital component in the economy, because without transportation, products could not be manufactured or distributed to those that want to purchase them.

History and Relationship of Transportation and the Economy

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ting areas that had previously been hard to reach. In 1956, Congress passed the Federal-Aid Highway Act resulting in the design of a 65,000-kilometer highway system that reached all American cities with a population exceeding 100,000 (Moss, 2004). The highway system made possible travel with larger vehicles, such as semi trailer trucks, which were able to move larger quantities of goods at one time. Writing on the period between 1815 and 1860, George Rogers Taylor suggested that "the changes in transportation were the key feature of economic development during this forty-five-year period, thereby elevating the significance of technology in accounts of economic change" (Seely, 2007). Taylor attempted to identify "patterns and connections" showing "The interrelatedness of transportation and manufacturing" as well as "the interconnection of capital and workers and with the overall linkage of the government with the economy" (Seely, 2007). The importance of transportation as a vital component of the economy became much clearer through Taylor's work. Examples and Impacts Transportation not only moves people and things throughout America, in 2002 "transportation-related goods and services accounted for m
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Approximate Word count = 1435
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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